Discord is a free text chat and voice app that lets users create or join various servers (which are then organized into channels).
You can think of it as like Skype, but aimed more specifically at the gaming community. Though, despite being designed for gamers, Discord is useful across a variety of communities.
It’s available as a free app for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. But it can also be accessed through most web browsers without needing to download the actual client.
While the basics functionality of Discord is pretty simple, there are a plethora of different text, chat and bot commands that can enhance your Discord experience. Here’s what you should know.
At first glance, chatting on Discord may seem kind of plain compared to services with built-in formatting tools like iMessage or Gmail. But there’s actually an easy way to spice up your text.
That’s because Discord uses Markdown, which is a plain text formatting system that’s simple and easy to use.
While not technically “commands,” learning some basic Markdown can go a long way to making your text stand out.
Italics: Wrapping your text in a single asterisk will italic it. Example: *italic text goes here*
Bold: Wrapping your text in two asterisks will bold it. For example: **bolded text goes here**
Bold Italics: Wrapping your text in three asterisks will italicize and bold it. ***italicized and bolded text goes here***
Strikethrough: Wrapping your text with two tildes (~~) will strike it through. Example: ~~strikethrough text goes here~~
Single code block: Wrapping your text in a single backtick (‘) to your text will create an inline code block. This won’t take up a line on their own, and can’t be styled.
Code block: Wrapping your text in three backticks (‘’’) will create a code block. This will create a full code block that can be styled.
Spoiler: Wrapping your text in two vertical bars will mark it as a spoiler. This means it will be hidden until a user clicks or taps on it.
Chat Commands
Formatting your text really only makes your text look prettier. But in addition to the text formatting options, there are also a suite of built-in chat commands that can unlock deeper features and capabilities.
These chat commands can perform tasks that range from practical to fun. Here are a few ones to get you started.
You can add emoji reactions to the previous message in a Discord chat using this command: +:emojiname:. For example, using +:smile: will add a smile reaction.
If you’re using Discord on Mac or desktop, you can easily edit your last message by simply hitting the Up arrow on your keyboard.
You can quickly fix typos and grammatical errors with s/text/replace. For example, if you wrote “appel” instead of “apple,” you simply type s/appel/apple.
If you’d rather use Unicode emojis instead of Discord emojis, you can simply add \. For example \:smiley: will add the Unicode version of that emoji.
You can get the ID of any item mentioned in a chat by adding a couple of characters. Typing \@user will get a user’s ID, while \@role will get a role ID, and \#channel will get a channel ID.
Slash Commands
Discord also features a number of slash commands. These are essentially chat commands that are activated with the / modifier. Here are a few prominent ones.
/tableflip: This command will paste this emoji, ╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻, into the chat.
/unflip: This command will paste this emoji, ┬─┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ), into the chat.
/shrug: This command will paste this emoji, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, into the chat.
/nick <insert new nickname>: This will change your display name on the server to whatever you input. You’ll need nickname change permissions, however.
/me <insert message here>: This will output italicized text. It works exactly the same as wrapping text in single asterisks.
/giphy or /tenor: This will search for animated GIFs that appear just above your chat box. Just select the one you want to use. The /giphy command will search Giphy, will /tenor will search Tenor.
/tts: This will have a text-to-speech reader “speak” your text outline. Keep in mind that this feature is disabled on many Discord servers.
Bot Commands
While you can accomplish quite a bit with text formatting and chat commands, there’s a whole other level of capabilities in chat bots.
Bots, essentially, are automated “users” that can streamline and perform various functions.
There are quite a few bots out there that have different focuses and capabilities, so be sure to check out a bot library to gallery to find the perfect one.
Different bots will use different commands and will have different sets of abilities. But, for the purposes of this article, we’ll use Dyno. It’s a powerful bot aimed at moderation and server management — but it has some fun features, as well.
You can get Dyno by going to this link and clicking Add to Server in the top left corner. Then, just log in and follow the instructions.
Once it’s on your server, you can actually go about using Dyon. By default, the bot uses ? to start commands instead of a slash. Here are just a few to get you started.
?announce [channel] [message]: This will have the bot make an announcement.
?weather [location]: This will have Dyno output the weather forecast for a specific location.
?ban [user] [limit] [reason]: This commands Dyno to ban a user. You can also input a specific time limit and a reason.
?mute [user] [minutes] [reason]: This will mute a user so that they can’t speak. You can also input the amount of time and the reason. You’ll be able to reverse it with the ?unmute command.
?quote: This will have Dyno output a random quote.
?addrole [name] [hex color] [hoist]: This will add a new role with optional color and hoist options.
?emotes: This will output a list of emojis installed on the server.
?membercount: This will output the number of members on a server.
?google [search string]: This will have the Dyno bot perform a Google search and output a link to the first result. Think of it like Discord’s version of “I’m Feeling Lucky.”
We hope that you found these popular discord commands helpful! Please let us know in the comments below if you have any questions.
Mike is a freelance journalist from San Diego, California.
While he primarily covers Apple and consumer technology, he has past experience writing about public safety, local government, and education for a variety of publications.
He’s worn quite a few hats in the journalism field, including writer, editor, and news designer.
I felt that this article did help me more with the backslash coding along with making the chat look nicer, but I feel like it didn’t kelp much with the other aspects of iOS discord. I currently am struggling with how the bots work and felt that this didn’t help.. sorry.
I felt that this article did help me more with the backslash coding along with making the chat look nicer, but I feel like it didn’t kelp much with the other aspects of iOS discord. I currently am struggling with how the bots work and felt that this didn’t help.. sorry.